KVR Audio

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:53 pm

Irion, your stuff is 1,000x better ... hard for me to get into chip tunes... a bit rough on the ears... but I do see the influences

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:05 pm

I wonder how much those chip tunes would be polished up by with the use of modern effects. Would be fun to try a remix maybe hehe.

el-bo (formerly ebow) · Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:39 pm

V'ger wrote: Some things will never be agreed on like for example how much effects (outside the synth) ought to be used, but maybe still good to occasionally hear some views to see if there are commons as some may feel restricted by some 'unwritten law' that might not even be there - obviously not ideal.
?

encouraged to see this being discussed again, as i'd love to maybe participate again

to me, the title says it all...."one synth" and "challenge"

how much of what we hear is just the "one synth" or tons of effects seems to be contrary to the concept...and i think that working within very strict limits is the challenge..not very challenging to be allowed to default to all our usual tricks and effects....i also think that everything needs to be judged from a level playing field, especially as there is judging, voting and the question of prizes

my vote would be with the idea of a common list of a few 'essentials' (freeware, cross platform), such as delay, reverb, compressor and limiter makes sense to me....any other plugs, such as from the hosts (unless we all suddenly start to use the same host) to be disallowed

i would also add that if the synth in question has onboard effects then any of them can be used, and that maybe in those cases the internal would void using the standard list of freeware....so a synth with onboard delay and verb would mean that we could then only use comp and limiter from the freeware list

one other thing, and this with regard to multiple entries...i think that everyone be only allowed one entry solo and one collab if they wish..pretty sure that's how the music cafe thing works...much as i dig the democracy in this, i really kinda appreciate the guidelines for the music cafe contest which seem pretty locked down.. pretty clear and fair

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:49 pm

I hear ya but is there really such a big gap between using a set of those effects and all the remaining? I mean a delay and EQ can only be so good and we would likely not choose the worst plugins if using a fixed list of effects.

As for using the effects the synth has, is it so pure for a synth to have effects anyway? Wouldn't the same argument for no effects apply also here? That it in the same way, using the effects there take away from the core synth sound? And if they are allowed, would external ones really make any discernible difference other than the knowledge of how it was made?

The Music Cafe has a very good set of rules, and I note one voice for a vote on number of entries per contestant.

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:54 pm

The rules as is are very KVRAudio friendly too. A lot of (free) plugin developers get a chance to hear their stuff being used, in creative ways. Variety of Sound, TAL, MDSP, Voxengo... too many to name.

If we single out effects, we do lose a bit of that community plugin feel.

I do notice that certain people who make nice tunes - but don't use many (or any) plugins, do not seem to get very many, if any votes. But this seems more or less a bias in what majority of people probably like, which is music that is a bit wetter, mixed with more plugins, and more effort put into the production side - rather than synth patch side.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:09 pm

Well said, there's KVR to think about too. Also agree a lot can be read from the voting.

Moldavsky · Post by **Moldavsky** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:12 pm

V'ger wrote:I wonder how much those chip tunes would be polished up by with the use of modern effects. Would be fun to try a remix maybe hehe.

if those chip tunes are polished up, they won't be chip tunes anymore, that's the case imo with their nostalgic sound.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:14 pm

Unrelated but be aware the play count at Archive.org for older competitions (the mp3 player on the site) was unfortunately reset during a revamp there so you should add around 3-4000 views to get the real number.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:15 pm

Moldavsky wrote:
V'ger wrote:I wonder how much those chip tunes would be polished up by with the use of modern effects. Would be fun to try a remix maybe hehe.
if those chip tunes are polished up, they won't be chip tunes anymore, that's the case imo with their nostalgic sound.

Yes but to see how much effects could do alone.

el-bo (formerly ebow) · Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:19 pm

V'ger wrote: As for using the effects the synth has, is it so pure for a synth to have effects anyway? Wouldn't the same argument for no effects apply also here? That it in the same way, using the effects there take away from the core synth sound? And if they are allowed, would external ones really make any discernible difference other than the knowledge of how it was made?

.

well, i'm not so much against the sound of the synth being changed as long as everyone has the same tools...but, i would regard internal effects as definitely a part of a synth, and not something that is added to disguise the sound...a good chorus, verb and delay can really be intrinsic to an instruments patch design and overall sound

it was also intended by the designer, and available to all entrants

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:32 pm

Imho most onboard reverbs are hardly usable at all (with honorable exceptions), sometimes you wonder what they were thinking. (putting lipstick on a pig again?

) And delay is still a delay. Of course always welcome with a nice chorus like the last TAL-U-NO comp, but not so when we did OSC 18 with Sonata's reverb only. The rules was actually changed after that as a result, it was just too obvious bummer all round which the talk and number of submissions showed.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:05 pm

Any more views or ideas? Should we run a rules vote for anything? Silent 'majority' always counted for so need to voice down anything yet if you don't want.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:52 pm

Moldavsky · Post by **Moldavsky** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 10:00 pm

Does anyone else here use bit-crasher plugins not to add distortion, but to spice up some high end of percussion, hats, etc? Maybe we can include Tal-Bitcrasher on the list of recommended plugins?

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 5:50 pm

Hey everyone! More motivation

V'ger I'm adding a copy of Image-Line Biohazard, Sugar-Bytes Effectrix, and 4GB of free samples to the prize pool (I'll take pictures of the serial numbers).

Keep them up until each is gone.

One-Synth-Challenge: General discussion thread